So I’ve waited long enough on this post…it had to happen.

I posted this a few weeks ago, hoping that someone would respond with similar feelings about what it had to say…and I finally got a response.  If you’re too lazy to actually click the link (which I probably would be — don’t feel too bad,) this is the general gist of what I said:

I had been searching around on TheNest.com, as brides-to-be are often wont to do, and found an interesting Q&A article on handling vacation time with your job.  It basically just said that you should work late nights and weekends to make up for the time you’ll be missing, just to show everyone that you know work comes first.  Also, give out your cell number so that coworkers can contact you while you’re on vacation, and email the office halfway through the week.  It also states that “you don’t have to take all of your vacation days, but then again a Pina Colada is a terrible thing to waste.”

Here we go:  Why I Hate This Answer.

I can’t believe that we’ve actually reached a point where people actually believe that work is more important than…well, life.  If you’re one of those people to whom your career is your entire life, this article probably works out just fine for you.  Maybe you get bored on vacations.  I know a few people like that.  I’m not friends with any of them, but I know they exist.

I, however, will take my vacations.  Here’s my take on things; I go to work to make money.  If I didn’t need money, I wouldn’t be working.  I show up to work every day with the brightest face possible on, and the company reaps the benefits of my labor and pays me for it.  They also offer me benefits, which I take advantage of because I earn them every day by being a good employee. It’s a give-and-take; I don’t owe the company anything besides my time, skills, and efforts, and they don’t owe me anything besides fair pay and benefits.

I live to be a good person, and to find out what living is all about.  I’m not old enough to know — perhaps I never will — but I do know for certain that living is not all about the place where you punch the time clock.  It didn’t take me too long to figure that out.  I live for my family and friends.  I live to experience happiness, elation, shock, disappointment, sorrow, love and peace.  I live to taste Velveeta macaroni and cheese…again and again and again.

Whether the company I work for believes it or not, work is a very minimal part of my existence.  It’s the five minutes of previews that I have to sit through to get to the full-length feature film that is life.  I’ll always work as hard as I possibly can while I’m there, but only because they pay me to.  If I didn’t work hard I wouldn’t be properly earning the money and benefits they’re giving me, and that’s just wrong.

So, yes — my vacation time is mine.  I don’t need to stay at the office nights and weekends to accommodate for the time off that is rightfully mine.  I refuse to hand out my cell number so people can bug me with work problems while I’m out enjoying my family…I won’t even have my cell phone on me.  Ha.  Take that.

So when I’m out for the next two weeks — you know, getting married — you can bet I won’t be anywhere near a computer or a cell phone!  And while I’m in Jamaica on our honeymoon, I’ll be helping the person who is the newest and greatest part of my life down all the Pina Coladas we want — but not because we’re on vacation.  Just because we can.  And believe you me, if the opportunity to have a Pina Colada comes up on a workday weeknight I’ll be grabbing the bull by the horns and sucking that thing down.

But I won’t let it effect work the next day — the same way I won’t let work effect my taste for Pina Coladas.